FROM THE PAPERS
Synopsis: Short summaries of articles we think you will find useful from some of the weekends broadsheets. At the end of each summary is a link to take you directly to the relevant article. Please see Helpful Hints at the end of the bulletin.
Date posted: Monday, March 23, 2015
Financial Times:” Stamp duty receipts fall after reforms”. The tax take from property purchases in the UK fell sharply at the start of 2015, following major reforms to the stamp duty regime that came into effect in December. Click here to go directly to the article
Financial Times:” Pension savers unable to book guidance as reform deadline nears”. Hundreds of thousands of pension savers affected by pensions reform remain unable to arrange free government guidance on their options just weeks before the changes are due to come into force.
Click here to go directly to the article
Financial Times:” Budget 2015: What it means for your wealth”. As he handed out tax cuts to savers, first-time buyers and workers this week, George Osborne told the House of Commons that Britain was taking a step closer to being a country ‘based on savings and investment’. Click here to go directly to the article
The Times:” Why you could be banned from selling your annuity”. Pensioners tempted by this explosive budget proposal may be disappointed at the cash offers they get.
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The Times:” Isa v pension: which is best for you?”. Savers should consider tax and inheritance as well as flexibility when deciding where to put their money.
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The Times:” Help to Buy Isa gives buyers inflated hopes”. The government is offering a bonus towards deposits, but rising house prices could mean savers are still left short
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The Times:” Fears of crash landing in ‘end of tax return'”. George Osborne said he will ‘abolish’ the annual torture of filling out tax returns, but critics say this might be optimistic given the government’s poor record with big IT projects.
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The Times:” 2015 budget lowdown”. The personal allowance, the amount at which you pay no income tax, will rise to £10,800 from £10,600 in April 2016, and to £11,000 in 2017. It was the budget’s biggest giveaway and will cost £2.4 billion in the next three years.
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The Times:” Think like Buffett and maximise your gains”. As investors scramble to put their money into individual savings accounts (Isa’s) before the tax year ends in two weeks’ time, there is fresh evidence that UK adults are not saving enough for their future.
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The Times:” What the tax changes will mean for you”. It may not have been a giveaway budget from the chancellor, but changes to both ends of the income tax system — the earnings threshold at which you start paying tax, and the level at which the higher rate applies — mean that most of us will see a change in the amount of tax we pay from next month. So what effect will it have on your spending power?
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The Times:” Fine for a late tax return poised to soar past £1,000″. People who file their tax return late could face a fine understood to be more than £1,000 as Revenue & Customs shakes up its penalty regime.
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The Times:” Inheritance tax loophole may close “. Families planning to use the legal loophole used by Ed Miliband’s family to cut their inheritance tax bill are being urged to get a move on after George Osborne threatened a crackdown on the use of deeds of variation.
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The Times:” Watch An end to the annual tax return panic”. The ‘death’ of the tax return announced by George Osborne in the budget will be welcome news for the 12 million people who grapple with the dreaded document each year, but are the reports of its demise exaggerated? Times Money investigates.
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The Times:” Beware the new lid on large pension pots”. George Osborne brought good news for pensioners but bad news for pension savers in his pre-election budget.
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The Telegraph:” Expats have nine months to ‘clock in’ or lose their state pension”. If anti-fraud forms are not completed and returned within several months the Government will cut off ex-pats’ pensions
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The Telegraph:” Another pension raid: the scenarios of who will have to pay”. Alison, a solicitor, can only hope her pension grows by less than 4pc a year. We profile those who will feel the sting from one crucial Budget change
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The Telegraph:” The tax return is ‘dead’ but will the new system save me any time?”. 11 million people can’t wait for the death of the dreaded annual tax return. But will the new system really be the panacea they are expecting?
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The Telegraph:” “My daughters will inherit my £1m home and pay less tax””. Derek Blincow is one of many owners of valuable homes who stand to benefit from the Tories’ new inheritance tax rules
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The Telegraph:” Help to Buy Isa vs stock market Isa: which one wins?”. The Government’s £3,000 savings bonus for buyers is a no-brainer, isn’t it? We do the maths
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The Telegraph:” The death of Isa’s? One day, you’ll be glad you kept yours “. I wouldn’t abandon Isa’s just because interest on ordinary accounts is going to be tax-free, writes Richard Evans
Click here to go directly to the article
HELPFUL HINTS
1. LINKS TO ARTICLES:
We have now provided direct links to the articles referred to in the article. These can be accessed by click on the “To go directly to the article click here” at the end of each article summary
2. REQUIREMENT TO SUBSCRIBE TO SITES:
As some Opus Gold users will be aware, many of the broadsheet newspapers that are traditionally covered in our From the Papers bulletin, are changing (or have changed) their free online access to articles.
Currently the Financial Times and Weekend Financial Times only allows access to view 8 articles a month free, then requiring the user to subscribe to their online service. From 1 July 2010 The Times, Saturday Times and Sunday Times articles are no longer available for free online. Instead a daily or monthly fee will have to be paid to access the articles.
We are aware of the inconvenience this will cause to our users. Unfortunately, due to the stringent copyright rules enforced by the newspapers we are not allowed to copy the articles onto our bulletin to make them available to Opus Gold users, thus our only option is to put a direct link to the article on the newspapers own website.
Although we will continue to produce From the Papers bulletins linking to these articles, users should be aware that access to many will now be blocked unless a personal subscription to the newspapers site is taken.
Once again we apologise for this inconvenience but this is something outside of our control.
QUICK LINKS
FINANCIAL TIMES, TIMES + SUNDAY TIMES, TELEGRAPH + SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN + GUARDIAN WEEKLY +MONEY OBSERVER + OBSERVER, INDEPENDENT + INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, SCOTSMAN + SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY +EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS, DAILY MAIL + MAIL ON SUNDAY + (LONDON) EVENING STANDARD + THIS IS MONEY.
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